Trade Month: Soft toy business Say It With Bears turns out to be a successful exporter

Launched at the end of 2004, soft toy business Say It With Bears is 100pc
online, and it wasn’t long before orders started to roll in.

Grin and bear it: pitching to the US has been worth it for Say It With Bears

By Jamie Oliver

2:01PM GMT 27 Oct 2009

Helen Hillman runs Cumbria-based personalised soft toy business Say It With Bears. Launched at the end of 2004, the company is 100pc online, and it wasn’t long before orders started to roll in. “The email pings when an order comes in, and it went off about ?ve minutes after the site went live,” Hillman says.

The business invested £5,000 in teddy bears manufactured in China, but the original plan did not look much beyond UK sales. Before long, however, the ?rm was selling more than 1,000 bears a month, and 30pc of customers now come from overseas. “I got up last week to see an order come in from El Salvador,” Hillman says. “Here we are on a hillside in Cumbria, selling teddy bears to someone in El Salvador. It is incredible.”

Demand from the US, birthplace of the teddy bear, is high. Yet selling to Americans isn’t without its problems. “Some customers think everything is quoted in dollars even when it has huge pound signs next to the price,” she says.

She added a currency converter and country ?ags to the site, in an attempt to avoid confusion - but it hasn’t always worked. “Some of our customers in the States still click on the ‘standard delivery’ box, something for UK customers only,” Hillman says. “There appears to be confusion that the UK is not part of the UPS delivery company. And some people think the letters UK stand for a US state.”

Understanding the vagaries of the US consumer is a common issue for small ?rms exporting from the UK, says Simon Collingwood, deputy director of UK Trade & Investment USA.

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“Because we share the same language,” he says, “some UK ?rms assume it is the same. It’s not. The way American people speak, the words they use and their meanings are often different and it can cause issues.” Brochures for potential US clients must be in American English and websites also need to cater for the distinction.

Collingwood notes that the US is a saturated market, but that it is always on the look out for creative and innovative ideas and businesses, and there are opportunities. “British companies working in life sciences are doing well,” he says, “as are those working in hi-tech medical equipment, ICT, ?nancial services and energy/renewables.”

However, he adds, businesses must bear in mind “how litigious it is in the US”. “All ?rms should have a good lawyer and UKTI can introduce British ?rms to good ones.”

While the importance of relationship building is often stressed in Asian or Middle Eastern countries, Collingwood says don’t underestimate how important it is in the US.

“The idea of an elevator pitch was invented in the US, yes, and it is true they are very direct and don’t take fools gladly. But the relationship is important. They might get to the bottom line quicker than UK ?rms, though, so be ready to talk money early on."